Race and Revolution: Still Separate – Still Unequal

Jun 24, 2017 @ 6:00 pm - Aug 6, 2017 @ 4:00 pm

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On June 24th, Smack Mellon will present the second Race and Revolution exhibition in a series
that utilizes a combination of contemporary artworks and historical documents as a platform to
examine patterns of systemic racism in the United States. This edition, entitled Race and
Revolution: Still Separate – Still Unequal, investigates the prevalence of segregation in the
United States public school system.
Since the inception of #BlackLivesMatter in 2012, the American population is reflecting on what
happened after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-60s. That word “after” is part of the
conundrum that surrounds our present-day conversation around race and racism. What exactly
came to an end? The exhibition Still Separate – Still Unequal seeks to examine ongoing racial and
economic disparity in the U.S. public school system. Reports in 2014, the year that marked the
sixtieth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown V. Board of Education decision declaring
segregated schools as unconstitutional, showed an increase in school segregation. How has this happened, and how can we use art to push the conversation into the public discourse in a new and
provocative way?
The practice of segregating students by class, race, and “aptitude” in the interest of creating a
“better” learning environment has produced a systemic crisis that reverberates within the
education system across the United States. This has resulted in the creation of a preponderance of
controversial policies that adversely impact students and teachers. This summer, eighteen artists,
many of whom teach in New York City public schools, offer their perspectives on the enduring
legacy of racial and economic school segregation in the United States.